1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to swimming pools, more particularly, to a pool skimmer/chlorinator that simplifies cleaning.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most swimming pools have a skimmer that filters large debris, such as leaves and insects, from the water. The water enters a skimmer well through an aperture and weir in the pool wall at the water line. A porous skimmer basket sits in the well to trap the debris. The pool water passes through the basket into the pipe that carries the water to the filter. Because the basket fills up with debris over time, it is generally removable for emptying and cleaning.
Chlorine tablets or sticks are used to maintain the pool water chemistry, which is required to keep the pool clean and safe. Some pool owners put the chlorine tablets or sticks into the skimmer basket so that they are dissolved by the water flowing over them.
When the basket needs to be emptied, it is pulled from the well. The debris can be pulled out of the basket by hand. However, because the debris can be hazardous—it may have insects and other dead animals that fell into the pool—many people prefer to dump the debris out without touching it. Unfortunately, the chlorine tablets—which can be expensive—get dumped out with the debris and are lost unless they are pulled from the potentially hazardous debris by hand.
One solution to this problem is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,386, issued to Enright et al. The chlorine tablets sit in a shallow basket below the debris basket. The debris is trapped in the debris basket and never reaches the chlorine tablets. The debris basket can be removed and dumped out without losing the chlorine tablets. One shortcoming is that either a clip between the two baskets or reaching into the well is necessary in order to remove the shallow basket from the well.